Kuch Bhi Awards: The Season Finale

Unpredictability is the name of the game, right from the gullies to the VIVO IPL.

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After 50 days of high-octane action, the VIVO Indian Premier League has finally drawn to a close, which means it’s time for the season finale of the Kuch Bhi Award, the most prestigious weekly awards in the history of the world, probably.

While the Mumbai Indians were triumphant in capturing their fourth VIVO IPL title, the real question is, which team will be crowned the inaugural Kuch Bhi Champion? Before we announce that, let’s take a look at this week’s winners of the Kuch Bhi Awards:

Unpredictability Award - Every team

Photo: IPLT20.com

This year’s VIVO IPL was one of the most unpredictable in the history of the league. Teams like Delhi Capitals made a huge impact this season while teams like the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore captivated the attention of every viewer, as they battled valiantly for a spot in the Playoffs.

The intense competition between the teams led to some brilliant cricketing action, much to the delight of the fans who have yearned for years for each team to be on the same pedestal and thereby bringing some unpredictability to the league. With a host of teams challenging the status quo, it is no surprise that it was the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings who played against each other in the VIVO IPL Final for the fourth time in eight years.

For bringing unpredictability to the league, we award five points to all eight teams.

Gully Boys Award – Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals

Photo: Hotstar

Every cricketer starts in his own gully before moving on to greater things, but for some, the gully never leaves them. Take for example this potential run out incident during CSK’s batting effort against Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 of the VIVO IPL Playoffs. After Faf Du Plessis hit the ball straight to a fielder, both he and partner Shane Watson got involved in an epic mix up, as they both started running in the same direction to save their wicket.

Upon realizing he won’t make it to the non-striker’s end before Watson would, Du Plessis started running back towards the danger end. But much to the bemusement of every spectator, Delhi Capitals bowler Trent Boult deflected teammate Colin Ingram’s throw away from the stumps and the wicketkeeper, allowing the openers to take an easy single after a chaotic 10 seconds that looked straight from the gullies of India.

For being topical and not forgetting their roots, we give each team a couple of points.

EA Cricket Veteran Award – Keiron Pollard

Photo: CRICFIT

Everyone that has played EA Cricket 07 on five-star difficulty knows how the game rigs balls that pitch outside the off-stump to catch the edge and go straight to the keeper or the slip fielder. The easy hack to ensure you don’t nick the ball is to simply shuffle way across off stump and hook the ball on to the leg side.

That’s exactly what Keiron Pollard did in the IPL Final when compatriot Dwayne Bravo kept bowling his deliveries way outside the off-stump and the umpire wouldn’t call a wide owing to Pollard shuffling inside.

Pollard’s stance suggests that the big West Indian has spent a lot of time playing EA Cricket 07 and as a fan of this great sport, nothing unites us like the holy grail of the best cricket video game. For his tribute, we give Pollard and Mumbai Indians two points.

Schrodinger’s runout – MS Dhoni

Photo: IPLT20.com

During the VIVO IPL final, CSK captain MS Dhoni decided to try and steal a run on an overthrow but a direct hit at the stumps from Ishan Kishan got rid of the in-form skipper…. Or did he? Social media was abuzz with the incident with two different angles indicating different outcomes. The side angle made it difficult to conclude that the batsman was out, but a front view suggested that the skipper was just short of his crease.

After, what seemed an eternity, of careful deliberation, the third umpire decided that there was enough conclusive evidence to suggest that Dhoni hadn’t made his ground, giving MI a crucial breakthrough, much to the dismay of some fans.

Was he in? Was he out? We can’t decide. But we’ve decided that Dhoni’s extremely deceptive run out gets three points.

Here are the final standings of the Kuch Bhi Awards:

RANK

TEAM

TOTAL POINTS

1

Royal Challengers Bangalore

25 🏆

2

Kings XI Punjab

24

3

Mumbai Indians

20.5

4

Delhi Capitals

20

5

Chennai Super Kings

17.64

5

Rajasthan Royals

17

7

Kolkata Knight Riders

11.9

8

Sunrisers Hyderabad

5

After eight weeks of consistency in raking up points, it is the Royal Challengers Bangalore who take home the crown of the inaugural Kuch Bhi Champions, just beating out the Shers!

Congratulations to RCB and a big thanks to everyone for participating…. unwillingly. That concludes Season 1 of the greatest weekly award show in the world, the Kuch Bhi Awards. Season 2? Well, at this moment, it’s Schrodinger’s Season 2.